


Defiers of Fate

by TelephoneCableSplicer



Category: South Club (Band), Winner (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Demons, Fantasy, M/M, Supernatural Elements, namsong - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:53:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelephoneCableSplicer/pseuds/TelephoneCableSplicer
Summary: Taehyun is a monster by birth, but Mino who is a hunter in the supernatural world —is a monster by choice.Originally written for a prompt in the Tomorrow Never Dies for the second NamSong fictions fest in 2018.
Relationships: Nam Taehyun/Song Minho | Mino
Kudos: 3





	Defiers of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old written fic that I noticed was never uploaded on this website by yours truly. Sorry about that. Please enjoy!

There are nights when you cannot sleep because you feel unsettled.

Or maybe you feel this hunch that you somehow need to be on your guard because _something_ was not quite right, with the _feeling_ of that particular night. You cannot fall asleep, so you stare at the space in the corner of your dark room —silently, worryingly, being vigilant over obscure reasons. 

One time, you think you saw a shadow of something moving in your peripheral vision, _'W_ _hat was that?'_

You think you can hear curious noises outside of your window, _'A_ _re those little animals or something else?'_ —But you refuse to budge an inch because being scared is a ridiculous notion.

You are a grown man, with a height taller than an average male, who fights and hunts creatures of the nights for a living. Such a tough persona cannot be scared of one ' _too eerie'_ of a night, right?

But that is just it. People like _you_ are usually the ones who will always be on high alert since it is already trained in your brain, in your body —that it is either a fight or flight case when it comes to instincts. _'Fear'_ is a feeling that had saved you countless times.

So there you lay, on your old rickety bed, too alert and too _awake._ You know that if you do pay attention, and ended up seeing something unwanted out there, you cannot chuck it all out to you being sleepy, to you being drowsy. You cannot brush it off as mere imagination.

Yes, you are afraid. You are afraid of a lot of things, especially those that lurk in the dark. That is why you have a gun underneath your pillow. Always.

As your hand silently slid underneath to feel the heavy weapon’s cold reassurance, you noticed that the weird noises had stopped. You are worried.

In the sparsely illuminate room, you tried very hard to strain your ears in the quiet night. Trying to pick up any sort of clues of what had finally made the noises stop. Did they (whatever ‘ _they’_ may be) simply gave up or were they up to something even worse?

Or could it be that they have already gotten what they wanted?

A loud crash came from the room next to you. Your heart is in your throat. The shocked scream from the room’s occupant triggered you from your momentary pause and made you jump off your bed, running wildly on your two strong feet. You slammed the adjacent door open and raised your trusted gun high only to be slammed by a force so strong —your body flew back and crumpled against the muted hallway floor.

A painful groan escaped you. You looked up and saw something big, something _inhumane,_ in a form so twisted and baffling that you are sure that it cannot be something from this world. The mass warps, it is blurred, sometimes it is mystifying and sometimes it is horrendous. One time it took a form of a very familiar face —you are confused as to the reality of what the creature _is._

But one thing is clear though, the big mass of nebula and darkness is unwaveringly swallowing your younger sister into its nothingness.

Her desperate screams and terrified eyes called out for you, one delicate hand struggling greatly to reach her only brother.

”Mino! Help me!!”

“Danah! No!!”

You ran forward but you were too late. They were gone. They vanished.

Your only family member, the unknown creature, the ominous aura; disappeared in a blink of an eye. The room your sister was in, a room where you had helped paint the walls in a soft pastel tone and assembled her humble-looking furniture together, is empty. Her favorite novels are scattered around on the floor, her familiar clothes and tasteful window blinds shredded to pieces, and Danah — _gone._

The last thing you saw as it happened was a glowing red tear in the air, like a huge rip in the middle of fabric; a portal to another world in the center of the room. 

The tear had crumpled down onto itself in a lingering reddish hue before it too disappeared into thin air.

* * *

The blond man rarely goes out at night, the world is getting more dangerous as of late. Not only for the humans but for the uncanny creatures too.

It was the nights when monsters, demons, imps —whatever one chose to call them, were in a delirious mood. Rampaging, killing, eating, turning berserk, and trying to survive in their helpless, frenzied state.

_'It’s the night of the full moon,’_ the bored man thought to himself. _‘They’re always restless during this month. And the supernatural community is buzzing with births and deaths during it.’_

He was not wrong, he had been seeing it happening for decades. He was feeling a bit moody too, but it was not from the full moon or the sinister energy. He was annoyed at the lousy sale he got that night.

Sure, he does not hit it big with his paintings. Some days, they do not even sell at all. But that night though, he grumpily had to get by with just a few won (after two days of surviving by the scraps) that he had earned from selling his arts by the street —and by ' _art',_ he means splashing a couple of paints together when inspiration strike, going wild in his already messy living room. Then a rather unique-looking canvas will be up for sale, solely for those who appreciate and understand his _artistic muses._

Now that he was back in his own home —too hungry to even move after a simple bread for dinner, too afraid to go out because of the heightened supernatural activities outside, the man lay starving on his color-splattered floor, staring off into space, thinking about nothing and everything at once. More often than not, he found himself in these kinds of limbo, where he simply does not know what he should do with his endless stretch of life anymore.

He is _gifted,_ sure —in ways no one else is. But sometimes he feels that his ' _gift'_ brings nothing but trouble. That was one of the reasons why he does not use it or even told anyone about it.

The blond sighed. It has been a long while since someone threatened him to use his special ability for harm. That is a good thing. Maybe he should not live in constant fear of people finding out about him anymore.

He believes that the knowledge about his ability is well lost in human history and any kind of cursed books of the witches. No one knows what is an Ember-runner anymore, these days.

And with that renewed determination to go out to actually try and find real food; the blond stood up. He stretched his body, raising his arms sky high, and heard a satisfying crack from his neck before he relaxed back. 

Curiously, he noticed that his foyer door was left slightly ajar. He was pretty sure that he had locked the door when he came back home.

_'Weird...’_ he thought to himself.

Suddenly, he was hit from the back by a solid force; a fist, a baseball bat, hell —it could have even been a chair for all he knows because it does not matter when his body is already hitting the cold hard floor.

A painful groan escaped his lips, a black cloth was immediately thrown over his head as he felt a painful stab of a needle on his neck. The blond felt his body going limp, he was fainting in his own house, captured, and is about to be taken away in the dead of the night.

And the last thing he vaguely heard from his attacker was a chilling command; “You’re coming with me, Nam Taehyun.”

* * *

“Wake up,” a deep voice commanded. Taehyun felt a soft slap against his cheek.

“Ow," the blond groaned as he gently touched the back of his head where he was struck before.

"Fuck, that hurt,” he leans on his side, lying halfway up against the floor and the rumble-y wall.

His mind is fuzzy, his whole body is sluggish as hell. He feels the floor juddering beneath him, there is the sound of a car engine, and the interior was dimly lit by a single light from the driver’s side.

_What the hell is going on?'_

“I didn’t even slap you that hard. Wake up,” the voice spoke again.

Still confused and unsure, Taehyun shifted his body upright to look and immediately noticed that he was in a back of a van. There was a man with him in that cramped space, clad in tattered black jeans and a long dark coat; crouching before him, watching him intently with his sharp eyes.

“Not my face... I- I meant my guts,” Taehyun replied with a little spite, although his eyes remained wide and a tad fearful. The stranger smirked at him in return.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?” Taehyun demanded, forcing his voice to not tremble as he scanned his surroundings, finding loose items rolling about on the hard floor.

_'Is that a shotgun?'_ His eyes widen at the glinting weapon beside the man. The ride was rough, they almost tumbled like dirty clothes in the washing machine as the van was probably going over difficult terrains. 

_'Not in town anymore,'_ his mind helpfully supplied.

“Are you Nam Taehyun, the Ember-runner?” The man asked without wasting his breath.

Taehyun sat shocked still, a little panicked at the man’s question. No humans had ever asked him that. Humans should not even know about the existence of Ember-runners anymore, or so he thought.

The man snapped his fingers in front of Taehyun's face, making him jumped back a little.

“Are you? Answer me.”

The blond swallowed hard, dry throat trying to form a lie but knows that he would get caught. The stranger already _knew._ Taehyun was confident that the man knew and Taehyun will only make a fool of himself for trying to deny it.

“I- I want to know, what do you want from me?” Taehyun tried to dodge the question. The man seemed mighty unimpressed by it.

“So you are then.”

“Where are you taking me?” The blond demanded again, forcing a false bravado onto his voice as he backed away from the man. He cannot let himself or more precisely, his _powers_ —to be used by anyone. His ability is not something to be used recklessly.

The van came to a slow halt, but the engine was kept idle by an unseen driver. His kidnapper moves towards the van's back door.

“Come see for yourself. We’re here,” he said and pushed the door open. He jumped out, gathering all of his small bags, and strapped them easily over his solid body, a practiced move as if he had done it a million times. 

Handguns, combat knives, dozens of small vials and dark pouches, a few trinkets, and a cursed necklace —something the forbidden in the spirit world where only a few were brave enough to wear the symbol.

_'A hunter’,_ Taehyun grimaced. He will not stand a chance against the stranger in terms of strength then.

The man grabbed his silver shotgun, sliding it onto his back swiftly. “Hurry up, princess. I won't harm you. If I had wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already.”

The blond glared at his kidnapper but did as he was told. He hopped off the vehicle, the taller man slammed the door shut, making Taehyun jumped from the loud bang and the black van drove away into the darkness and out of sight.

Taehyun took a glance; they were in the woods, and the man nudged him to walk up a path that leads them to a small, bricked house —the place looked okay much to his surprise, except for that one smashed window and the eerily flickering light bulb on the foyer.

As they stepped into the house, Taehyun was pulled roughly forward into a damaged room —books and decorations were thrown about on the floor and the shelves.

Suddenly, a sharp chill ran up Taehyun’s spine, _‘Something happened here.’_

Time was breached; a tear was made between this world and another. Taehyun could sense it all. It was a long, long, —long time ago when such things had happened, but one could never forget the feeling of it.

The feeling of worlds colliding.

“What happened here?” Taehyun asked, shivering in a cold sweat. The man stared at him silently.

“Something came, out of nowhere,” the man said. Taehyun asked again, but the man continued to shook his head.

“I don’t know what. But it took someone precious to me, now I need to track it down,” the man explained. He walked further into the room, leaving Taehyun to stand at the edge of the door, too afraid to step in —for many reasons.

“You’re an Ember-runner, Nam Taehyun. You open doors to other worlds. You know who, or what, that was here, don’t you?”

Taehyun observed the _'feeling'_ surrounding the room. He knew for a certain that the being was not human, but almost similar in a way —like someone’s past, a ghost, a memory maybe, something intangible.

It has a huge aura, a magnificent amount of power and strength —but it was in pain when it arrived here. It was weeping, Taehyun could feel the lingering sorrow.

“I don’t know what it was, but I can feel its lingering aura. It’s nothing from this world.”

The hunter immediately strode forward in huge steps and stops in front of the startled blond.

“You and me, we are going to track the motherfucker down, and _kill_ it,” the stranger spoke with an ultimatum, eyes seething in anger and body ready to burst into action.

“Wh- what do you mean we? Why should I help you?” Taehyun replied, taking a step back as the stranger follows. “I don’t even know you!”

The blond’s shuffled back until he felt the hallway wall behind him. The man slammed both of his hands against it, trapping Taehyun in place.

“If you don’t, then I’ll _kill_ you.”

Taehyun frightened eyes grew braver at those words, “You’re an idiot then. I don’t _die_.”

A smirk, then the man pulled out a cloudy emerald stone from within his many pockets. Taehyun could not believe what he was seeing.

“Maybe not naturally. But you do die —if something were to happen to _this_.”

“That’s—” The blond tried to snatch the stone away but the stranger raised his hand high, his other hand fists the front of Taehyun's shirt roughly before slamming the blond back against the wall, almost knocking the whole air out of the blond's chest.

The hunter waited patiently as Taehyun tries to regain his senses back, blinking the dizzy spots away; the man is frighteningly strong.

“This stone... I believe, it is your soul, isn’t it?” He asked, the emerald glinting mutely in the dimly lit hallway.

Taehyun gritted his teeth, hissing at the man who was rendering him still, “Where did you get that?”

“A warlock gave it to me. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to find it. I didn’t even need to kill anyone for this. Not that I wanted to since the warlock is my friend. But he just happened to have this lying around in his mentor’s dusty collection and saw no use of it. Well, it’s mine now. And so are you,” the hunter stated.

It is not necessarily true that Taehyun belongs to the man just because he holds Taehyun’s emerald. Yes; every Ember-runner came together with their own stones, but the emerald’s purpose is more for Taehyun’s sake. It is to tell the Ember-runner just how much longer their ability lasts, like the battery percentage bar on an iPhone.

And since Taehyun had not seen his stone for decades (people lose things, please give him a break), it was no surprise that the emerald’s glow seemed dimmer —his ability will only last for a few more years.

He has to nurture his stone again if he wants to continue owning the title as an Ember-runner. If he does not, then there is no harm done. He can simply live his life normally minus the ability to jump between worlds.

“Fine. I'll help you... but in return, you have to give that stone back to me after we’re done,” Taehyun said. The man raised a curious eyebrow at him. 

“The stone is not my soul in case you’re thinking of using it. You can’t own a freaking Ember-runner that easily. I'm not a freaking genie in a lamp, idiot.”

“That’s twice you’ve called me an idiot tonight,” the man replied back, unamused as he pockets the stone and roughly lets the blond go.

_'Urgh, why do hunters always behave like a typical thug,’_ Taehyun thought bitterly. 

“Oh, don’t get all brash now,” Taehyun started to say. “I can call you a lot worse; a brute, a kidnapper, a thug. I just don’t want to seem eager with the insults,” Taehyun straightened himself, feeling yet another bruise forming on his chest.

_'The bastard has no manners.’_

“I’m surprised you get to live this long with that loose mouth of yours.” 

The man walked back into the wrecked room, Taehyun following him from behind at a safe distance.

“What’s your name, bastard?” Taehyun cannot help but behave like a wounded cat, hissing at any danger even when faced with the biggest stray dog.

The man clicked his tongue and turned around, a furious glare in place. “You really need to shut your mouth before I blow your brains out, fucker,” he warned.

Taehyun; a little miffed with his current predicament so far, simply shrugged the threat off. Honestly, Taehyun had been kidnapped a couple of times before. The blond had handled worse treatments from a few people in the past who had hurt him for his ability. The hunter before him is a saint in comparison throughout the whole ordeal, but Taehyun was not going to tell anyone _that._

“It’s Song Mino,” the hunter finally said after a while.

The name alarmed him, for Taehyun was quite familiar with it —a lot of the supernatural beings avoided the said man. He recalls back to the stories about a group of skillful and dangerous hunters, humans, all of them; as vicious as the shape-shifting beasts with fangs.

They kill witches, trade faeries, sell vampires’ hearts and banish demons for a living. Song Mino and his group does it well and most often, without mercy.

Taehyun stood shocked still at the door and Song Mino can tell that the blond was scared of him. Initially, he planned to keep the Ember-runner in the dark about his identity for a bit longer, at least until they had jumped into another world, where the blond cannot escape him.

“Chill. I will hold to our deal if you keep your end of it, Nam Taehyun. Your stone is yours _if…_ you bring me to the creature that was here. I will do my best to not sell you or cut you up after all of this is well and done for.”

Taehyun was wary but what other choice did he have? He cannot win against _a hunter,_ the most he could do is escape to another world and forget about his emerald stone.

_‘Fuck my life,’_ Taehyun cursed. He forced his nervousness aside, shaky hands forming into fists as he stepped further into the room.

“Is that so? Well then... In that case, I’ll make it clear to you, Song Mino. I most definitely can get you there, to the creature. But I’m not confident we’ll be able to do it on the very first try,” the blond stated and saw the growing irritation rising in the hunter’s eyes.

“Just keep in mind that it could take a long while, a lot of tries before we reach the place you want to go. Don't be so trigger happy if things are not going your way on the get-go. Are we clear on that?”

Mino shrugged, looking bored and ready to go since the moment they stepped into the house. That is the most assurance Taehyun feels he will get from the man. Taehyun shoo-ed Mino to the side as he walked into the center of the room. 

“I’m reminding you to _not shoot me_ when we’re not where we should be. Understand?”

“Crystal. Now get on with it, before I shoot you right here, right now before we even start _._ Or is it that you're a little rusty? Can't remember how to use your powers anymore, demon?”

The hunter taunted him, smirking in that irritating way. Taehyun glared at the man, folding his sleeves up as to not burn his clothes for what he was about to do.

“I’m no fucking demon. I’m an Ember-runner, I’m on top of the fucking food chain. And shut up, opening a tear to another world is a piece of cake,” Taehyun retorted back and held his arms forwards.

The veins in his arms start to glow deep red, then they all ignited into hot embers, slow sparks rising in the air. Even from the side of the room, Mino felt the heat from the warp that was currently forming and bending the space in the middle of the room.

Taehyun pulled his arms away from each other and a huge tear emerged in front of them. The tear was not big but it was not small too, it was just the right size for the people who will move through it.

Song Mino felt fear, again. The portal was something new and unnatural, but he steeled himself as he strode forward to stand beside the blond.

”Let's go. Oh, I hope you’ll land on your head and break your skull when we fall into another world,” the blond said with a proud smirk of his own.

* * *

Sixteen worlds, an unsavory amount of supernatural creatures, and one angry, vengeful curse from a witch which they managed to undo before death catches them later —Taehyun and Mino had once again fallen into another wrong world.

“I take back what I said, Mino!” Taehyun shouts at the man who was lying on the forest floor, dizzy spots floating in the hunter's head.

“Please don’t break your skull! You can’t die, you need to fucking protect me, goddammit! What use are you if you can't even fight a pack of lousy dogs?!”

They were not actually fighting dogs. Currently, both of them are battling a swarm of hungry werewolves, eager to munch on their fresh, beating hearts.

Notably, throughout their taxing world hoping, Taehyun had learned the harsh way of why Mino was such an infamous hunter. The man was ruthless with his guns and knives. He had also, maybe reluctantly, needed to save Taehyun’s ass a couple of times because Taehyun was not going to lie —the blond was no fighter. He cannot even punch a person without breaking his own fingers.

“Can you freaking shut up for once,” Mino groaned from where he was lying down. Taehyun tried to pull the hunter up but saw a black werewolf jumping from behind a bramble towards them.

Taehyun hastily created a tear, not big enough to fit a grown man since it was made in a haste, but enough for the werewolf to get his upper torso into another dimension. Taehyun wasted no time in closing the tear, the creature’s body predictable cut in half by it.

“Argh, gross!” Taehyun whined at the blood splattered all across the forest floor.

Mino had gotten back up on his feet, he charged forward and shot a couple of werewolves dead, always aiming for the heads.

“Yeah! Get them, Mino! Head-shots every time!” Taehyun cheered from behind a fallen sturdy tree trunk, not really lending a hand. Him staying out of the way was a much-preferred plan for both parties.

“That’s what an amateur would say,” Mino huffed back as he sliced a werewolf twice his size on its throat. The creature gave a pitiful cry before it fell to the ground, dead.

“What?!” Taehyun shouted back, ducking and covering his head from the beasts. "Did you say something?"

Mino’s gunshots and the cries of the creatures of the nights had rendered Taehyun’s ears near useless. For a mythical creature who lives in hiding and always trying to masks their presence, they sure like to scream and groan _loudly._ One would think that they would do a better job at _not_ being detected.

“What?!” Mino yelled back in confusion. Taehyun shrugged. Mino groaned and rolled his eyes before he was caught and thrown across the wood towards the blond. Taehyun yelped and ducked, he winced as he heard the sound of Mino’s body crashing onto the solid wood he was hiding behind.

Taehyun peeked over and saw the hunter did not look too hot at that moment. “You okay?” Taehyun asked meekly.

“Fuck, you think?” Mino groaned. The last werewolf was growling and howling in fury, probably because Mino and wiped all of his pack members.

Taehyun stared at the creature, its ugly face and weird gait remind him of someone. Its murderous aura felt a little familiar too.

“Hey, don’t you think that ugly mug looks a bit like you?” Taehyun pondered out loud.

“Are you done?” Mino gritted his teeth and raised his gun, ready to shoot the oncoming enemy. He pulled the trigger, nothing happened. He tried again, only clicks were heard. His gun was empty. “Great.”

“What are you doing-” Before Taehyun could finish his words, the werewolf jumped forward towards them with its jaws opened and sharp fangs glinting in the night.

Taehyun immediately created another tear and did the same thing he had done previously; cutting the creature into two. “Fuck, you’re hopeless!”

”Me? I fucking killed the whole pack!” Mino retorted back, getting into a seating position. Taehyun stood up and jumped over the fallen tree, kneeling beside the wounded man.

“Except for the last one, doofus,” he replied and tried to check if there was any heavy injury on the hunter. He saw a tiny trail of blood trickling down behind the man’s neck, probably caught by some sharp claws. 

“Ew, you’re bleeding all over. Not surprising, since you were being too slow at ending them.”

Mino rolled his eyes, too tired to even get into an argument with the blond. After so many worlds hopping with the man, Mino had learned that Nam Taehyun was not an easy man to deal with.

The blond is a moody bastard, he whines at everything, he wears false bravado splendidly and he _never stops_ giving his unwanted opinions on _all fucking matters._ The man is like a girl on constant PMS. If only he could shoot the blond and then himself to end this suffering.

Taehyun leaned forward to stop the bleeding with a bandage cloth he unearthed from one of Mino’s many small pouches. The cut did not seem deep, thank god for that.

Mino who was staying still, the blond’s face only inches away from him, and he immediately took the chance. He pulled the man’s head down, kissing the blond fiercely on the mouth.

Taehyun’s eyes widen, his protests died in his throat as he started to returned the kiss too, letting the hunter slid than sinful, skillful tongue into his mouth.

They broke apart after much-needed air, “We can’t do it here, idiot.”

Mino saw the blush rising on the blond’s face and almost threw all caution into the wind, wanting to very much _do it here,_ out in the woods, right now _._ But his back was killing him, and he was tired beyond reasons.

“I saw a chance, and I took it. And don’t get me wrong, I really wanna fuck you but I think I need a little rest.”

They had been _doing it_ for a while now. It started in a world where they met _another_ Mino, the similarity was uncanny —except for the fact that _'that'_ Mino, had fins and a glimmering fishtail.

A merman, or a siren to be precise. And that siren was the most appealing creature Taehyun had laid his eyes upon. Long story short; Taehyun almost got eaten by the siren-Mino, and human-Mino saved his ass, scolding him that if he wants to get into Song Mino’s pants so much, then at least do it with the human one.

Taehyun turned beet red and stayed a distance away from Mino after that, too embarrassed to even look at the man in the eye.

Another episode came when they fell into a world where Taehyun was cursed by a succubus, and he needed to blow his load off fast and in multiple succession or _he will die._

He was not sure how serious the succubus was about the curse, but apparently, the unbelievably hot woman wanted to bang Mino instead for his far superior seed or whatever. She only cursed Taehyun to keep him preoccupied with something else.

Taehyun had accidentally cut the succubus in half and it was _not_ out of jealousy, mind you. Long story short; Song Mino had to save the blond again, this time by fucking Taehyun’s brain out.

If they were to _keep going at it_ sometimes, then it was simply to relief some stress. They never really talked about it actually.

“Well, do you think you could maybe get your freaking rest after we get out of these woods? Let’s switch world, that creature was not it. They all had the same aura though, so it’s getting harder to track the being that you wanted,” Taehyun grumbled as he pulled the hunter into a seating position.

They both had noticed that the creature they were currently tracking down from the wrecked room, was in actuality —a Song Mino in another world, in another form. It was a weird wake-up call, that Mino had been killing himself without mercy on all these worlds, the merman, the werewolf, and other beasts. Taehyun does not know how to feel about it.

Mino nodded his head. “Yeah, let’s leave this place.”

“Wait,” Taehyun suddenly pulled the man back, capturing his arm and pushing his long coat sleeve upwards.

“Oh,” there were black scales there, forming steadily along the hunter’s human arm.

“What the fuck?!” Mino swore as he saw them. He pulled his sleeves up further, but the scales seemed to had only grown until his elbow.

“The fuck is going on?!”

Taehyun heard the panic in the man’s voice for the very first time. The blond was not 100% sure of what was happening to the man, but one cannot think that after wreaking havoc in other worlds, they could simply get away scot-free without any repercussion.

“I think since we had been killing a few _yous,_ it's not surprising the you that’s left will be affected too,” Taehyun said, starting to bandage Mino's right arm that had turned half inhuman in a poor attempt to hide it from the man’s worrying gaze. The black scales that had replaced the skin seemed familiar to the blond; it was a demon's skin, on a human body.

“Call me heartless... but you have no one to blame but yourself for ending all those Minos’ lives.”

A wry chuckled came from the man, Taehyun looked up and saw Mino staring at his newly bandaged but undoubtedly grotesque-looking skin with a blank stare.

“You’re right... Maybe I do deserve this. I bet I’ve killed more than those monsters ever did in their lives. It’s only fitting that I turned into one in the end.”

Mino stood up, the bandage curiously began to seep red blood, the amount was not normal —but then again, it was no longer a normal human arm, so Taehyun was not sure if he should be worried or not.

The hunter gathered what few belongings left, strapped them onto his body, and trudged forward into the woods. Taehyun sighed as he followed the man closely from behind.

Another tear, another world.

The mood turned somber, the air was quiet but Taehyun managed to pick up the words carried back to him from the man; “Even if my whole being turned into a monster, I will not stop until I find her.”

* * *

Taehyun finally learned that Song Mino was looking for a girl.

In one world, they killed a man who could raise the dead, and the strongest puppet he owned was a porcelain-faced girl who fought them with tears streaming down her pale cheeks.

It was hella-creepy but it also broke Taehyun’s heart, because he could not understand how a puppet could _cry._

It took him a while, but Taehyun saw that the doll held a passing resemblance to the girls they had met in the previous worlds, the ones Mino would always hesitate to kill.

At first, the blond had thought that it was because Mino may be held a certain kind of conduct even as a hunter, something along the lines of _do not kill women and children._ But maybe it was more than that, maybe those girls reminded him of _someone._

After Mino did kill both the weeping puppet and the necromancer who emits an aura a lot similar to Song Mino, they burned the old manor down. Mino's other arm turned completely black —and it was not from being scorched by the raging fire.

* * *

In another world, they killed a one-eyed lion.

Taehyun could not tell what had happened to the beast, whether its eye was gorged out or if it was severed by a deep cut. It could be the latter for its body was tattered with too many scars, anger burning in its remaining golden eye.

A young girl with no legs and unkempt hair, as if she had been left in the wild for far too long —stared at them in constant fright, animal carcasses were strewn about inside the cave's floor.

The girl was dying from starvation, probably had been on the brink of death many times; consuming raw animal flesh and living in false hope had kept her going.

Taehyun covered his ears and turned away from the screams that came from the dark cave, and waited for the hunter to come out with blood trickling from his newly blackened claws.

Another Mino was killed.

* * *

There was another world, where they did not kill the young boy in the attic; the boy had killed himself instead.

He was young, but he was a monster; a creature that sucks warm blood and eats human flesh. He hid in the attic, the room had bodies being hung upside down, some already turned into skeletons.

He was wrought by guilt and hunger, and his last victim was his own baby sister. The mangled body of a little girl, the blood dripping from the boy’s mouth, and the young eyes full of tears —made Taehyun threw up on the floor.

The boy wailed his apologies, asking for forgiveness from someone who was no longer there.

Mino did not do anything, he simply stared in silence, his grip on his trusty gun tight. The boy pulled at his own skin, tearing his own face apart with bloodied fingernails, his screams are raw, too young, and too painful to hear.

The boy ran across the room, towards the stained-colored window, and crash into it. He fell to his death.

No parts of Mino’s body changed from that world, but Taehyun suspects that the man may have lost a small part of his soul from it.

* * *

They killed a lot of Mino's _other_ lives.

Those Minos were in all manner of shapes and forms, every one of them was unlike the other, but they were similar when it comes to their ill-fated ends. They were the same too when it comes to a girl they had loved too dearly.

“Who is this girl to you?” Taehyun finally asked, and the man standing before him did not look like a man at all.

When he first laid his eyes on Mino in the van, back home in their world, the hunter was tall and strong, toughened by years of chasing and slaughtering monsters.

Now, Mino himself has turned into an abnormality of his own —dark scales, hidden fangs, sharp claws, and a head full of horns that climbed all the way down his muscled back. The prominent, strong, red tail stood out the most, how it could be used to stab a being in a blink of an eye.

He looked demonic, and yet Taehyun could only feel sorrow when he gazed at the ex-hunter.

The man, no, the monster replied steadily to Taehyun. He spoke like a normal human being, even when his voice was no longer a deep timbre, but instead; entirely scratchy and eerie to hear.

**“Danah.. is my sister. She called me her hero, and I will do anything to get her back.”**

The blond scrutinized at how Song Mino did not look anywhere near a _hero_ anymore. Or if his beloved sister were to see the man now, what he had become in the course of searching for her; Mino will end up being the one to cause her pain and despair. _Mino_ will be the _monster_ instead.

“You’re losing yourself, Mino,” Taehyun warned softly. He had a hunched that _this_ was the way the human-Mino will lose his sister. In _this way_ was how human-Mino will finally meet his end.

**“I don’t care. It never was about me, this is about her,”** the demon pressed as if trying to convince himself instead of Taehyun. And yet it was clear as day, how Song Mino lives solely for Song Danah.

“Mino, I think we should st-”

**“She only has me. We went through so much shit together, the one who took her had no rights. She is my baby sister. My Danah. She’s all that I have in this world,”** the demon claimed in a low growl, bristling in silent anger, his voice was like nails dragged against a chalkboard.

**“I will find her, I will save her. We will go back home together.”**

Taehyun almost cussed at the irony of it all. Mino obviously loves his sister but he did not care the least about the other Danahs, the ones he had ended with his own two hands. This Mino, like the rest —will only bring pain to the girl, Taehyun knows it.

“Like how you saved all the other Danahs? By ending their lives forcefully?”

**“They were in PAIN!”**

Taehyun startled violently as the sudden roar echoed down the lonely winter road they currently stood on. The blond swallowed heavily, watching the anger barely being contained in that demonic form.

**“Danah, all of them... were in _pain,_ Taehyun. And I’m not going to pretend to be somebody noble. Somebody who _pretends_ that goodness can help _fix_ the pain. Danah is in pain and I’m strong enough to _end it.”_ **

The monster slowly turned around to face the blond. The crunching of the gravel could be heard from the sharp claws, the chilling gust of wind did nothing to Mino’s now impenetrable skin.

Under the heavy moonlight and on the quiet road of an unknown icy world, Taehyun saw that Mino's eyes shined even brighter against his demon form. The clarity was astonishing, looking more humane than they ever were when he was a human.

**“Tell me, Taehyun. As an Ember-runner who’s scared to try and commit to any kind of relationship at all,... A monster yourself... with an imaginable ability that could simply escape through time and space when things get too tough to handle** — **when had you ever needed to be strong for someone?”**

The blond kept quiet because the answer to that would have been, _‘Never.’_

* * *

They finally found the being, the _Mino_ who had stolen Mino’s Danah from their peaceful home —and everything around them was currently _burning down to the ground._

The starry sky was red and bleeding, even the clouds seemed hot to touch as blazes of fire rose to lick the tallest tree in the woods. The once picturesque forest, before the fight happened —had unwillingly fallen victim to their fight against their strongest foe.

The Mino in that world was closed to some _godly_ being, an entity too powerful that even _his_ demon-Mino, so impressive and so strong; had suffered serious injuries trying to take him down.

They found Danah. _Mino's_ Danah.

She was beautiful, encased in a crystal tomb, inside a magnificent tree that was too fucking pretty for Taehyun to stare at for too long.

She and the tree were in the middle of an aquamarine-colored lake. Danah it seemed, was made into nature’s life force, frozen in an eternal slumber, forced to dream a pleasant dream forever —her dreams was nourishing the ground and keeping the stars, the moon, the sun in that world; alive.

Thunderstorms and howling winds ravaged the land when both Minos exchanged blows after fatal blows, the ground shook and every other small imps and insignificant fiends in that forest had either flee in fear or turned to attack the newcomers, equally in terror.

Taehyun had exhausted himself, tearing time and space over and over to avoid them, to cut them, to save himself. He cannot rely on Mino when the demon was busy trying to end _himself._

Taehyun could not stop him, Mino had chosen his fate. But at least he could do his very best to save the girl instead. Danah was innocent, the girl was merely a pawn in all that had happened.

The blond made sure that no threat was around before he bravely descended into the cold lake, breaking the still water’s surface. He had to swim across the lake for him to get to the fucking pretty tree.

When he reached the crystal, he had no idea how to actually get the girl out. The blond pounded his fist on the clear rock, yelling for the girl to wake up. He punched to solid rock over and over to no avail. He did not know what to do

A high-pitched noise came from up above then, Taehyun was forced to cover his ears painfully. The shrill cry was so loud that even the crystal’s tough surface cracked from the force

Suddenly, a blinding flash shone throughout the forest as everything burst into flames. Their god fell to the ground, defeated.

Taehyun gasped a few panicked breaths from the shocking experience, an episode he never wanted to go through again. Everything around them was _burning,_ even the magnificent tree before him is starting to catch fire. 

The heat surrounding him was as red as the water in the lake when he noticed the demon Mino trudging lethargically through the water’s surface.

He was a mass of demon, with a body so black and red that Taehyun could not see from where his injuries start or end —only the copious amount of red seeping through the water showed just how seriously wounded Mino was.

The demon pulled the tree’s trunk apart with shaking arms, claws carefully breaking the crystal that held his most precious person. And when the girl was pulled out gently from her crystal tomb; Danah looked incredibly fragile, unimaginably pure against Mino's demon hold.

The monster hugged her close, tired hands combing through her long, soft hair.

**“Danah?”**

The girl did not move. Only the sound of burning woods and quiet plea filled the dark night. Taehyun floated by closely in the lake, soaked to the bones, tired and worried.

**“Danah, it’s me. Wake up,”** begged the demon, voice trembling in despair. It was obvious how futile those pleas were, and yet Mino did not stop, and Taehyun too, kept hoping.

**“Wake up, please.”**

Taehyun's wounds from his close encounters with death when battling the stray imps and demons alone had strangely started to heal. The lake was soothingly warm, the tranquil water glows dimly.

**“Danah,... Danah, please,”** Mino continues to beg. Taehyun swam closer, the anguish was too pitiful to hear.

**“Please! Wake up! I- I can’t-“** The demon was losing too much blood, his hold on the girl started to lax.

**“No. No, no!”**

Taehyun grabbed a hold of the demon’s enormous and bloodied arm, his scales were missing here and there, his red blood was hot to the touch. 

“Hey, Mino. Hey, calm down,” the demon’s eyes stared at him in fright, and Taehyun almost broke into pieces himself at the wrecked gaze.

“Mino, it’s okay. You’re fine. She’s going to be fine too. Hold her close, Mino. Don’t let her go,” the blond urged as he brought the demon’s arms to wound tightly around the girl.

The demon looked lost, scared, and in pain.

**“Taehyun, help her,”** Mino whispered, his strength slowly slipping away. **“Please.”**

“I will. I will help you both,” Taehyun answered back, pulling the larger demon closer to him, the water making it easier for him to swim them to the center of the lake.

“Mino, sleep now. Just close your eyes and don’t let her go,” Taehyun said and kissed the demon softly on his unfamiliar lips. “You’ll both be fine. You’ll come back home,” the blond whispered his promise.

With eyes glowing in trust and fatigue, Mino finally closed his lids. The demon succumbed to his wounds and Taehyun let both of them go as the pair of siblings sunk deeper and deeper into the bottom of the lake.

The water will heal them, it might take more than a while for them to be okay. But they will live.

Taehyun opened a tear in the middle of the lake, surrounded by burning woods, thick smoke, and the solemn moonlight. He needs to go back home. He has to find a cure or a reverse chant for the demon.

Reversing a curse is not easy but it is not unreasonable. He might take more than a while too, to find this world again —but he knew Song Mino, an aura so familiar and so close to his heart. Taehyun believes that he can sense Mino now even in his sleep.

The blond will probably face more than a few vengeful monsters or spirits from the other worlds if he were to reemerged back here and not succeeding on the first try. So he needs to bring along a few back-ups, someone as strong as Mino, as ruthless, maybe less moody.

_‘The rest of Mino’s hunter friends then,’_ Taehyun decided.

“Wait for me, Song Mino. I’ll come back for you,” Taehyun vowed to the still waters. He smirked and passed through the tear, “and then maybe you can become the hero to your sister once again.”

-The end-

**Author's Note:**

> • Originally posted at [Tomorrow Never Dies NamSong Ficfest](https://namsongfictions.livejournal.com/30303.html) in Livejournal.  
> • You can [send me a Ko-Fi](https://ko-fi.com/tcnim) too now =)  
> • I've been gone for over 2 years? Haha! Come and say hi at [Airvice Twitter](https://twitter.com/_AirVice)


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